Please tell me that it will get better, TOG and scheduling

[classics4us]

Let me preface by saying that this is my 5th year HSling. DD will be in 5th, Ds 2nd and Ds 1st. This is our first year using TOG.

 

Last night I spent 6 hours, scheduling week 1 for dd-UG. I have to schedule 2 LG students tonight. I hope I am up for the challenge.....:lol:

 

Is this normal or is there something wrong with me? I've searched several TOG scheduling posts and never found someone taking 6 hours for one student for one week! I read that it's more like an hour or two per week. Is this just a learning curve? I hope so cause I will def crash and burn with this curriculum if I'm spending that much time scheduling.

Thanks for listening:bigear:

[1bassoon]

Hangeth thou in there!

 

6 hours does seem long - maybe tonight, when you're scheduling the LG students, you can keep a time log of what you're actually doing? That might help find the areas you could trim down . . . . . . . can you list the steps you're following to schedule? Maybe some experienced TOGgers could take a look.

 

It will get better. After the first 4 weeks, you'll find a rhythm and be more efficient.

[~Jo]

Weeeelllll I haven't started to actually write my lesson plans out yet so don't know exactly how long it will take me. :D

 

I was just going to ask if you have listened to any of their "webinars"?

 

I bought/listened to Out of the Shrink Wrap and Lesson Planning 101 and they were worth every penny! In fact I plan to listen to them again when I get back from vacation - we aren't officially starting until the 23rd of August so I have a while yet. There is also a coupon code to get a free July talk also...I got the one on Teaching Literature free.

[MSNative]

I could have written your post. This is our 5th year hsing but our first with TOG and there is a learning curve. We've been going about a month and it gets easier. One thing I spent a bunch of time on - making a student binder for Unit 1 for each of my kids (UG and D). I made that binder my planner. I put everything related to each week in there - weekly sheets, SAPS, geography maps, vocab lists, graphic orgs for writing, coloring pages ('cause yeah, we love to color) even pages with online games for activities (like plate techtonics). This has given me my sanity back. Now we can just follow the pages in the binder. I'm still with you on being overwhelmed, but I thought I share this as a way to know that you are getting the core work done.

 

Another hint - look at the blogs of wonderful people on this site who share tons. I've spent a lot of time there learning.

 

Looking forward to reading your other responses.

Edited July 20, 2010 by MSNative
typos

[Guest aquiverfull]

Boy do I understand what you're saying. I'm feeling very overwhelmed with trying to plan TOG. I bought YR1 unit 1 and I'm getting no where. I'm finding it impossible to plan without being able to see the books ahead of time. I'm going to have to get the books sent from one library to the next. Not being able to see the books, I have no idea on how to spread the reading out through the week, not knowing what would be a reasonable amount to read each day. I don't know if we're supposed to read the first two days of each week to keep the rest of the week open for Activities, Student Activity Pages, Mapping, etc or what. When I try to sit down and look at all of it, I just sit looking at it for hours, paralyzed not knowing what to do. I don't know if I can make this work. :willy_nilly:

Edited July 20, 2010 by aquiverfull

[classics4us]

Thanks ladies,

Tonight was better I did the boys lessons in about 45 minutes. Whew! I basically copied from Dd's, using age appropriate books and activities of course :001_smile:. I think I spent most of my time clicking back and forth between pages trying to decide which activities to do. I also spent a lot of time printing things out, I suppose I need to learn to multitask better.

 

To aquiverfull, I hear ya. I do not have the books in hand and it is hard to decide how many pages to assign and when. Hopefully after I gather more books over the summer and we actually start school I will have a better feel of how much and when to assign readings. Good Luck!

 

To Jcodevilla, nice idea about the binders, may have to try that!

[siloam]

Let me preface by saying that this is my 5th year HSling. DD will be in 5th, Ds 2nd and Ds 1st. This is our first year using TOG.

 

Last night I spent 6 hours, scheduling week 1 for dd-UG. I have to schedule 2 LG students tonight. I hope I am up for the challenge.....:lol:

 

Is this normal or is there something wrong with me? I've searched several TOG scheduling posts and never found someone taking 6 hours for one student for one week! I read that it's more like an hour or two per week. Is this just a learning curve? I hope so cause I will def crash and burn with this curriculum if I'm spending that much time scheduling.

Thanks for listening:bigear:

 

Took me a week to plan my first TOG week. It has gotten shorter and shorter and now I do whole quarters in a couple of weeks. The only reason why it takes me that long is because I substitute books, and have to look up vocab (still doing classic), and want to have everything just so. When it comes to doing it, I can pick up and go.

 

Heather

[mom31257]

I am a little confused. I thought, from looking at the materials, that everything is laid out for you. What was I missing when I looked on the website? I am considering using this after next year, but this is making me seriously have some doubts. I would have one in 9th grade and one in 3rd grade, but I'm not sure what levels I would place them in.

[siloam]

I am a little confused. I thought, from looking at the materials, that everything is laid out for you. What was I missing when I looked on the website? I am considering using this after next year, but this is making me seriously have some doubts. I would have one in 9th grade and one in 3rd grade, but I'm not sure what levels I would place them in.

 

It depends on how you use it.

 

Because I substitute books, I have to schedule them in (using MOH as a spine, for example). I got in and look at the workload, because using a different spine changes the balance that TOG strives to give you in the first place. I have to decide if some weeks are light and I need to use another text. Then I like to have a SL like schedule with daily readings all laid out. I go in and schedule all the books into daily reading portions, and do the same with the mapping and timeline work. Because I am still in the classic I don't have access to vocab definitions, and have to look them up myself. Then when I have everything scheduled I print everything out and have it pick up and ready to go.

 

If you simply use the block scheduling it is designed to be used in, and you use their main book recommendations you would cut my planning time by 3/4.

 

That doesn't change the fact that when it is brand new to anyone you have to go through and find all the pieces and decide which to use and how to use them. That is what took me so long at first, and what is taking up all the original poster's time. Once she has the parts figured out and how she wants to use them it will probably take very little planning time.

 

Heather

[Janice in NJ]

Mandie,

 

Have you watched the Lesson Planning 101 Webinar?

 

http://www.lampstandbookshelf.com/ZC/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=100_101&products_id=466

 

She covers so much in that short hour. When you say "6 hours" is that because you spent time reading the teacher's notes and learning about the week's topic? OR did your struggle for six hours to figure out which pages to read on which day and which activities to do?

 

If it was the latter, I would suggest that you give one of these samples schedules a "test drive" for the first three weeks. Just use these until you get a feel for what you and your kids like to do and how your kids/family learns best.

 

http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/loom/year-all/scheduling.php

 

Don't burn yourself out before you get started. "Scheduling and Planning" can be a black hole. It sucks you into a very dark place where you spend your life approaching something, but you never actually arrive there. Very discouraging. It always seemed like the "perfect plan" would produce the perfect homeschooling day. It was painful to discover that was just not so. Now I know that close-enough is really enough. I spend a much bigger part of my life learning about the topics we are studying. More interesting. More fun. More challenging. AND - who would have thought? - it packs a MUCH bigger punch. :001_smile:

 

Don't try to plan the perfect schedule. I would encourage you to shoot for close-enough and then enjoy learning about what works for you and your family. There is much to celebrate about that PROCESS. I find peace when I embrace the process rather than try to eliminate the need to be IN PROCESS.

 

Hope that makes sense.

 

(And please know that I would LOVE to plan the perfect year. It's part of my nature. Circumstances, experience, and wisdom have dictated that I've switched to close-enough-planning. It makes for richer paths of peace.)

 

Peace,

Janice - headed into our 12th year of homeschooling - what a grand, grand ride!

 

Enjoy your little people

Enjoy your journey

[MSNative]

Don't burn yourself out before you get started. "Scheduling and Planning" can be a black hole. It sucks you into a very dark place where you spend your life approaching something, but you never actually arrive there.

 

:lol:

I love that line. I like to think of my dark place as a whirling vortex of panic.

 

Don't want to take credit for the student workbook idea - I got it from lots of different sites. Here's one - http://homeschoolblogger.com/karenciavo/category/tog-workbooks/

 

FYI - Mine is not as professional as hers. I just printed, three-hole punched and popped in a binder. But I did love the idea and my kids are enjoying them.

 

Few other good links about scheduling from some brilliant ladies here at the Hive - http://lifeofthegilbertgang.blogspot.com/search/label/organization

 

http://triviumacademy.blogspot.com/search/label/lesson%20planning

 

http://web.mac.com/rivendellpress/Rivendell_Press/_TOG_Schedule.html

[woolybear]

You know, with all the planning I am attempting to do (well, mostly thinking about doing:001_huh:) when I looked at TOG it did really overwhelm me. So I put it back on the shelf. I have decided to make it really simple for myself to start. I have an UG and LG student. I am going to just plan for UG and find a few LG books for my LG guy. I will print out maps and maybe a few SAP to start and that's it. I think at least this way I will get going with TOG instead of giving up before I even start. I can slowly expand what we are doing as we go. This has been the best advice that I have picked up from veteran TOGgers.:)

[angela in ohio]

Your first week for your first level will take you about ten times longer than any other week you ever plan. This is true of many curriculum. There are so many decisions to be made up front that really apply to all the weeks, not just to the first. It will get much easier after this!! Now you have a template to follow for future weeks.

 

I just finished scheduling my UG/sometimes LG student. I also have a D/sometimes R and an R to schedule yet. :001_smile: It took me about 5 or 6 hours to just make all the early decisions: what format of map, which spine, to timeline or not, how to keep track of vocabulary, etc. Then it took a few hours to choose books for the first unit, with the library site open on my laptop. Then it took an hour or so to pick projects. Then I finally got down to scheduling the first week. :001_smile:

[Melissa in CA]

OMGosh!!! It should never take 6 hours to plan a week of TOG for one child. If I had even one week like that, I would have given up long ago.

 

My advice...

 

Keep it simple! Everything is laid out for you, the books, the pages to be read each week, etc. Take a simple blank schedule and write, or type, in what your child is to do each week, each day. Print out your maps, your student activity pages, and throw everything in a file folder labeled with that child's name and week 1. Continue this through week 36. Simple. At the beginning of the week you have your childs schedule and all the pertinent papers in their folder ready to go. My ds keeps all his TOG stuff in his folder and works on it each day.

 

I personally try to use only the primary books and to not even look at the supplemental/alternate books unless absolutely necessary. I also do not use TOG's vocab preferring a regular vocab workbook instead. I did use TOG vocab in our first year, but felt it was too word-limited to be used as our vocab spine...and more time-consuming than needs be...so I just eliminated it altogether. No regrets.

 

Also, be sure you are picking activities all your children can work on together. Each child does not need his or her own grade level activity. That will get very old, very quickly. I would also be very careful with the activities, that they don't become a burden. If you are doing the lapbooks, you may find that you don't have time to do a crafty activity each week...or ever! lol...that is OK. My ds does not do any of the crafts, and hated the lapbooking. He is not craft oriented and finds all crafts just a complete waste of time. He is still getting a very full history education with TOG though...sans all crafty things. ;)

 

Last but not least, please remember that TOG is a buffet of choices. Start simple!! JUST use what is listed on page 4 (primary resources page) and you will have a very full history curriculum. Don't feel you are somehow missing out on something if you do not use the alternate books....they are 9 out of 10 times just redundant to what your child is/has read in his primary readings (ask me how I know this :tongue_smilie:). I now only use the alternate resources page when we come across a literature book that my ds has already read, then I look for an alternate...and only then. I am sometimes tempted by the "enrichment" column, but our history is already far too top-heavy, so I have refused to go there...so far.

 

If you decide to use SOTW as your spine then you can easily skip all the History Core selections, and probably many of the In-Depth. But then, you're kind of losing what is so wonderful about TOG. :001_huh: The Charlotte Masony/Classical whole book approach to history. ;)

[ChemMommy]

I think I spent two weeks of free time going through all four levels of TOG 1 and writing lessons plans for 4 kids for the entire unit. I worked through all of the primary and supplemental books, choosing ones that fit my kids the best, chose activities, vocab, maps, etc.

 

The next unit of TOG1 took just a week.

 

Now, for TOG3, I can do a unit in 2 days (working mainly in the evening) to choose the books, order the books, and enter all of the plans in homeschool tracker. Piece of cake!!

 

For now, just look at the primary books. I'd even be tempted to just do the first line of history and skip the in-depth part for a few weeks. Order the books or reserve them in the library. Write up lesson plans and call it good enough.

 

I came from SL so I wanted specific pages to read each day. For TOG 1, all of my lesson plans have each book broken down by pages to read each day. My kid all told me that they didn't need that much information. They said it was fine i I just told them how many pages to read for the week. Most of the time, they pick up a book and read the whole assignment for the week in one or two sittings.

 

TOG IS NOT THIS HARD TO USE!! Repeat this to yourself. There are a lot of choices available, but it you stay on the primary page, you'll be doing a great school program, IMHO. We do no activities--we're not a crafty family. I have no desire for chicken mummies or salt dough maps. We use another vocab program and we use the maps from TOG as is, no transparency project--just label the darn map. I don't make president cards or time-lines. There's not enough time to do it all. And I have upper level math and science to teach, writing to teach, and a job to work.

 

Start small and add rather than do it all and back down. (I started with is all and backed down--waste of a lot of planning time).

 

Hang in there, dear sister!! And welcome to TOG!!!

[siloam]

Awwwwww but planning is the fun part!

 

The "work" I do is really of my own making, it doesn't need to be this complicated at all. Yes I really need therapy. :D

 

Heather

[Melissa in CA]

TOG IS NOT THIS HARD TO USE!! Repeat this to yourself. There are a lot of choices available, but it you stay on the primary page, you'll be doing a great school program, IMHO. We do no activities--we're not a crafty family. I have no desire for chicken mummies or salt dough maps. We use another vocab program and we use the maps from TOG as is, no transparency project--just label the darn map. I don't make president cards or time-lines. There's not enough time to do it all. And I have upper level math and science to teach, writing to teach, and a job to work.

 

Start small and add rather than do it all and back down. (I started with is all and backed down--waste of a lot of planning time).

 

 

:lol::lol: I can so relate to this entire post!!! TOG History does NOT need to be complicated. Truly. The buffet extras (president cards, time-lines, transparency maps, etc.) are there for people who need major therapy...like Heather! :lol: jk!!!!

 

I agree, start simple, simple, simple and then add on later if you desire. Don't try to do it all at the get-go or you'll be selling your TOG in a hot minute. ;)

[bkpan]

I think I spent two weeks of free time going through all four levels of TOG 1 and writing lessons plans for 4 kids for the entire unit. I worked through all of the primary and supplemental books, choosing ones that fit my kids the best, chose activities, vocab, maps, etc.

 

The next unit of TOG1 took just a week.

 

Now, for TOG3, I can do a unit in 2 days (working mainly in the evening) to choose the books, order the books, and enter all of the plans in homeschool tracker. Piece of cake!!

 

For now, just look at the primary books. I'd even be tempted to just do the first line of history and skip the in-depth part for a few weeks. Order the books or reserve them in the library. Write up lesson plans and call it good enough.

 

I came from SL so I wanted specific pages to read each day. For TOG 1, all of my lesson plans have each book broken down by pages to read each day. My kid all told me that they didn't need that much information. They said it was fine i I just told them how many pages to read for the week. Most of the time, they pick up a book and read the whole assignment for the week in one or two sittings.

 

TOG IS NOT THIS HARD TO USE!! Repeat this to yourself. There are a lot of choices available, but it you stay on the primary page, you'll be doing a great school program, IMHO. We do no activities--we're not a crafty family. I have no desire for chicken mummies or salt dough maps. We use another vocab program and we use the maps from TOG as is, no transparency project--just label the darn map. I don't make president cards or time-lines. There's not enough time to do it all. And I have upper level math and science to teach, writing to teach, and a job to work.

 

Start small and add rather than do it all and back down. (I started with is all and backed down--waste of a lot of planning time).

 

Hang in there, dear sister!! And welcome to TOG!!!

Pam,

 

I am wondering if you could explain how you enter your lesson plans into homeschool tracker? I suspect that it could be a real benefit, but I keep going to the lesson planning area of hst and getting lost :confused: How do you plan with it? Thanks!

Kim

[classics4us]

Wow, you ladies are truly inspirational! Thank you all for uplifting me, encouraging me, making me laugh and mostly for calming me down. I really appreciate it. I am going to try and tackle Dds 2nd week tonight or tomorrow. I will take notes on what it is that is actually slowing me down. This weekend is our annual curriculum fair, hopefully I will come home with a box of TOG books and better equipped to judge when and how many pages etc to schedule!

 

Thanks again!

Love to you all